Late afternoon on Monday, I took advantage of the clearing clouds to take a hike up Mount Royal.

The mountain is looking particularly vibrant these days and in the early morning and late afternoon sun it literally glows in shades of red, orange, yellow and green. I had planned to take some shots along the winding path to the summit, but in the end (as it was beginning to get close to sunset), I decided to cut across the path and head straight up to the Camillien-Houde Belvédère before the sun sank below the other side.

View from the Camillien-Houde Belvédère

The Belvédère provides a great view of the Olympic Stadium and to the East of the city. If you don’t feel like walking, there’s a car park, or alternatively, you can take the bus #11 that stops at the Belvédère.

Camillien Houde Belvédère
ISO 100 – 10mm – f4.5 – 1/640 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

View from Camillien Houde lookout
ISO 100 – 14mm – f4.8 – 1/1000 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

View from the Camillien Houde lookout
ISO 100 – 18mm – f5.6 – 1/250 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

I continued my hike and made my way up the steps and along the escarpment path, stopping briefly to take a shot from one of the clearings that provides another great view of the Olympic Stadium. You used to be able to walk to the edge of the cliff but a fence has recently been put in place (I imagine as a safety precaution). Thankfully you can still get a good view but it prevents you taking low angle shots to include the rocks…But I’m sure it’s possible to find a way around (or over) when the shot requires more foreground interest 😉

I decided to shoot 4 images to make a collage in post processing.

Olympic Stadium Collage
ISO 100 – 70mm – f4.5 – 1/200 sec (4 image composite)

The Kondiaronk Belvédère

I reached the Kondiaronk and found a new angle that I hadn’t shot before that was to the rear and side of the chalet.

Kondiaronk belvédère
ISO 100 – 116mm – f4.8 – 1/20 sec

There were some wonderful clouds floating over the chalet. I decided to go for 2 different looks. The first was a standard HDR blended image to bring out the detail of the clouds while maintaining detail in the shadows. And since the clouds were moving fairly quickly, I also decided on taking a longer exposure using the ND filter to capture the cloud movement.

Mount Royal Chalet
ISO 100 – 18mm – f13 – 0.5 sec (-2ev/0/+2ev)

Sunset over Mount Royal Chalet
ISO 100 – 18mm – f8 – 25 sec

The moon rising over Montreal

The moon was just a couple of days away from being full and although I missed it rising above the horizon 🙁 I was able to get some shots as it hung over downtown Montreal.

Moon rising over Montreal
ISO 100 – 35mm – f4.5 – 1/250 sec

Enjoying the early evening view at the Kondiaronk Belvédère
ISO 100 – 35mm – f6.3 – 1/250 sec

Moon gazing from the Kondiaronk Belvédère
ISO 100 – 35mm – f6.3 -1/1000 sec

Moon rising over Place Ville Marie
ISO 100 – 110mm – f7.1 – 1/125 sec

Moon rising over Montreal in Autumn
ISO 100 – 35mm – f4.5 – 1/15 sec

Montreal skyline panorama
ISO 100 – 35mm – f2.5 – 1/15 sec (9 frame composite)

I hadn’t noticed when I took the next shot of a close up of the moon that a flock of birds were passing by…Shame they didn’t fly just a bit higher and pass directly in front of the moon, but still, I was happy to have pressed the shutter when I did.

Flock of birds beneath the moon
ISO 100 – 300mm – f5.6 – 1/50 sec

Montreal skyline at dusk
ISO 100 – 35mm – f2.5 – 1/15 sec

Montreal skyline blue hour
ISO 100 – 35mm – f1.8 – 1/10 sec

As the moon began to disappear behind a bank of cloud I decided it was time to head back down the mountain. Having just packed away my tripod, I thought I would just grab one more shot of the light beam of Place Ville Marie and attempted to get it just as it was directed at the partly obscured moon. It took a few attempts but one frame ended up being what I had intended – I just wished I’d not been so keen to pack my tripod away since I had to shoot at ISO 1600 to get the correct exposure.

Montreal skyline at night
ISO 1600 – 35mm – f1.8 – 1/100 sec

Some recent print sales

Here is a selection of some recent prints sold:

A 12×8 print of the Lidec sign on rue Marie-Anne was purchased by a buyer in Quebec.

Another buyer in Ontario purchased 16×24 prints of the following images that can be found in the Montreal Architecture and Urbanscape gallery:

Although I’d intended to remove the gallery store and concentrate on selling solely via Fine Art America, I’ve found many people still prefer buying prints direct. I’ve therefore decided a full review of the store is in order and hope to get around to doing a big cleanup of the gallery store in the coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

Montréal in Pictures

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